Reviews, ruminations, ramblings, and reminisces about the movies. Gave up on the periodic thing. I'll try to post as much as possible about movies I watch and awards shows I am handicapping.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

262. The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

-Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist? -Because I choose to.

Before the Matrix sequels came out I attended a meeting of the ECU Philosophy club (at the Perculator) dealing with the "free will" implications of the fictional Matrix universe. This film, in particular, stripped away most of the wire work, wizardry, and kung fu that made the original film so broadly appealing and forced the viewer to examine how they really think about themselves and mankind. Because of this preachiness, quite a few people didn't enjoy the sequels, but I felt a little different. It would've been easy for the Wachowski brothers to simply continue the same gunfights and bullet-time throughout the sequels, but they chose to explore the ideas proposed in their original movie on a much deeper level which ultimately distanced many of their fans. For me, I felt the movies were a breath of fresh air compared to the average action movie sequel which simply tries to recapture the glory of the original.